Emner "virksomhedsetik"

Do the Codes of Conduct and Ethics reflect Reality in Management Consulting?

Maula, Marjatta; Poulfelt, Flemming(København, 2000)

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Resume:

The management consulting firms’ competence and capacity to provide high quality services and
thereby create, transfer and develop managerial knowledge have an important role for the client firms and
the society. The international management consulting associations have formulated Codes of Conduct
and Codes of Ethics that aim to regulate and provide guidelines for the management consulting firms’
activities. This paper investigates whether there is a fit between the Codes and (a) the current modes of
management consulting, and (b) the needs of the consulting firms to learn and develop continually their
knowledge base and competencies. The analysis indicates that the majority of the Codes tend to support
one-directional, i.e., ‘directive’, ‘content-based’, and ‘transplantation-based’ type of consulting. In the
cases where the Codes recommend interaction, they could emphasize two-directionality and mutual
interaction between the consultant and the client more clearly and explicitly, in the spirit of ‘nondirective’,
‘process-based’, and ‘translation-based’ consulting models. As to the development of the
consulting firms’ knowledge and competencies, the analysis reveals that the Codes emphasize necessary
qualifications and the quality of advice. With two exceptions the Codes do not directly and explicitly
indicate the dynamic aspect, i.e., that the consulting firms should develop their skills and knowledge
continually. Also, there is variation concerning the methods to develop competencies. Therefore, there are several unutilized opportunities to develop the Codes to meet better the needs of the knowledge society.

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.."the thesis tries to show how – with the appearance of the
themes ethics and democracy – new conditions have evolved for the administration of the Danish pension fund investments. It should be emphasized that the thesis not only aims to provide a description of the Danish debate about ethical investments; it makes a separate contribution to systems theory. This contribution consists in a general presentation of Luhmann’s theory (chapter 2) followed by discussions
of Luhmann’s concepts of risk (chapter 3), morality and ethics (chapter 4) and public and public opinion (chapter 5). In theoretical terms the contribution of the thesis lies in showing how Luhmann’s systems theory can be used to describe and analyze public opinion formation in general and the debate about the Danish pension fund investments in particular.
The thesis focuses on Danish developments but international developments
are not ignored. To put Danish developments into perspective, a part of chapter 1 focuses on developments surrounding ethical – or socially responsible – investments in the US and the UK. Matters of definition, historical developments and praxis forms are presented and lead up to an overview of key events in the domestic debate. It is argued that the Danish debate – unlike the very individualistic anglo-saxon debate – has focused on collective matters. The debate has focused on institutions which make investment decisions on behalf of many – often hundreds
of thousands of – people, institutions which do not operate in a free market setting. A brief description of Danish developments is followed by a summary of and further reflexions upon the analytical arguments of the thesis.